Monday, March 17, 2008

Hanmer Springs - Heaven on a bike

So with Easter coming up sooner and the Wee McGregor race, I'd booked 3 nights/4 days in Hanmer to do lots and lots of riding. We've got a little 3 bedroom house booked and a couple of friends are coming up too. Hanmer is FULL of single track. There's something for all levels and its really challenging and fun. There's lots of hill climbing and descending, stunning views. tricky xxx sections and hairpin corners. Last time I was here was great, but there was lots I couldn't ride.We arrived on Sunday and after unpacking the cars we headed straight out for a ride up Dog Stream via the forest. Dog Stream is a beginner track. Pretty flat, with a slight up hill gradient, no techinical bits (but great fun for blasting back down, carefully so a not to run any walkers over). From here we continued up the first part of the Jolliffe Saddle track. Very steep, rocky and rooting with a couple of small steps in it. I walked the whole first section and rode the next bit up to the bridge. From there we went up the road to the base of Bigfoot. A fairly new trial that I've heard is bloody hard to get up, but brilliant fun for coming down. The boys headed up this and us girls went back down the road to where Dog Stream turns into Jolliffe and raced back down this. It was a nice start to a biking holiday.